PCM or Dolby Digital?

[barneyz71]

I have a PS3 and a denon 2807 receiver running a 7.1 speaker configuration hooked up HDMI.
When starting up a Concert DVD should I choose PCM or Dolby Digital?
Also with BD movies what is the better of the two?
Thanks

[LembasBread]

For the DVD it becomes a question of what you prefer and your setup. The PCM is gonna be 16/48 uncompressed - but for only two channels. So theoretically, fidelity-wise, the PCM should be the better option. But, on the other hand, the Dolby Digital track is most likely mixed in 5.1 giving a more enveloping and aggressive mix. On those music DVD's, the 2-channel PCM track is mostly for music purists who think all music should be 2-channel only and have very hi-fidelty stereo set-ups. For BD movies, though, the PCM is always the better option. Because the DD and PCM tracks are both 5.1, they should have similar mixes with the PCM track being the vastly superior of the two. What's cool about BD is that up to 7.1 channels of sound can be encoded up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution, but nothing has taken advantage of this yet (but some titles have 24-bit/48kHz tracks like Pearl Harbor and Dinosaur or 7.1 PCM tracks like Descent).

[barneyz71]

Originally Posted by LembasBread

For the DVD it becomes a question of what you prefer and your setup. The PCM is gonna be 16/48 uncompressed - but for only two channels. So theoretically, fidelity-wise, the PCM should be the better option. But, on the other hand, the Dolby Digital track is most likely mixed in 5.1 giving a more enveloping and aggressive mix. On those music DVD's, the 2-channel PCM track is mostly for music purists who think all music should be 2-channel only and have very hi-fidelty stereo set-ups. For BD movies, though, the PCM is always the better option. Because the DD and PCM tracks are both 5.1, they should have similar mixes with the PCM track being the vastly superior of the two. What's cool about BD is that up to 7.1 channels of sound can be encoded up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution, but nothing has taken advantage of this yet (but some titles have 24-bit/48kHz tracks like Pearl Harbor and Dinosaur or 7.1 PCM tracks like Descent).

Thank you... I have the PS3 set to auto for the audio and I hope that it picks the highest audio available.